UCLA Health Survey Adds Armenian

My News LA

UCLA’s California Health Interview Survey is now being offered in Armenian for the first time, expanding the state’s largest health survey to better capture data from one of California’s largest ethnic communities, officials announced Wednesday.

The CHIS survey, administered by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research since 2001, is the largest population-representative state health survey in the nation, according to the university.

Officials said the 2026 survey will be conducted in seven languages — English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog and now Armenian — as part of an effort to improve representation among underserved communities.

“CHIS is an important snapshot of what policies are working, who might be getting left behind, and where there’s room for improvement,” Ninez A. Ponce, director of the UCLA CHPR, said in a statement. “We’re proud to now offer CHIS in Armenian, which will allow us to capture a more complete picture.”

California is home to roughly 250,000 people of Armenian descent, the largest Armenian population in the United States, officials said.

Researchers said the effort to include Armenian went beyond translation, with teams reviewing materials for accuracy, clarity and cultural relevance to ensure meaningful participation.

“Being part of this effort reinforced for me how critical linguistically inclusive data collection is, especially for communities that are often underrepresented in health policy research,” said Kathryn Sarkissian, a UCLA student who worked on the project.

Each year, the survey collects data from more than 20,000 households on topics ranging from access to health care and chronic conditions to housing, income, food security and other factors that influence health outcomes.

Officials said the data is made publicly available and is widely used by policymakers, researchers and public health professionals. In recent years, the survey has been cited in dozens of legislative analyses and hundreds of academic and media reports.